314 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



capital, wages with us absorb one-half, in place of a 

 fourth, of the gross produce; so that all that remains for 

 the farmers' profit and incidental expenses, or the most 

 productive portion, is only a third of what accrues to 

 these in Scotland. The profit, which in France is about 

 a tenth of the gross produce, and one-third of the rent, 

 amounts in Scotland to a fourth of the gross produce, and 

 four-fifths of the rent. In England the gross average 

 production is double, and the division proportionately 

 about the same, except that taxes in Scotland being very 

 much less, the farmers' portion profits by almost the whole 

 difference. 



The greatest superiority of the Scotch rural economy 

 consists in the smallness of the number of its labourers. 

 In France, as we have already observed, the rural 

 population amounts to about sixteen per one hundred 

 acres, and in England to twelve ; but in the Lowlands it 

 is only five, for an average production at least equal to 

 that of France, and to one-half that of England. This 

 proportion is probably the lowest in Europe ; and still it 

 will decrease for production continues to increase, whilst 

 the rural population remains stationary, or nearly so. 



There were formerly in the Lowlands, as everywhere 

 else throughout Scotland, a great many cottiers or 

 crofters, small farmers who worked a few acres after a 

 miserable fashion, like our metayers, under tacksmen or 

 middlemen that is, stewards or bailiffs, who managed 

 for their masters' account. All these cottiers have dis- 

 appeared ; some have become workmen in the mines or 

 manufactories, others are farmers, only a few are common 

 day-labourers. The average size of farms has increased, 

 without being yet very great, since it does not exceed 

 one hundred and fifty to two hundred acres ; and the 

 farmers themselves form one-half of the rural population, 



